Quad Life at Sixteen
by VeronicaWeasley
Summary: Two years after Dicky left for Australia, he returns and everything in the lives of the Harper quads goes back to normal. At least, everything is supposed to be normal. But Dicky has something to hide, and the other quads are determined to find out what. Rated Teen just to be safe.


**So, I've decided to try writing a plain old NRDD story with no other fandoms involved. It's set after the show ended, when the quads are in high school.**

**Enjoy!**

Chapter 1

"Nicky, wake up." Nicholas Harper opened his eyes and looked tiredly up at his sister Dawn.

"_What?_" Nicky asked in a tone that indicated he did not want to be bothered at this time of day.

"Get up," Dawn ordered. "I want breakfast."

"Make your own breakfast," Nicky grumbled, pulling the covers over his head.

"But I want eggs," complained Dawn. "I need protein to get me through the first day of Junior year." Dawn seized Nicky's blankets and threw them off of the bed.

"And I need sleep." Nicky covered his head with a pillow. "I got off my night shift five hours ago."

Nicky had taken up a summer job at a diner in town, and had told his family during the previous day that he planned on quitting. Evidently, this plan had not been followed through with.

"You can sleep any old time," Dawn insisted, taking the pillow and throwing it on top of the blankets.

"It's six a.m," said Nicky, keeping his eyes shut to block out as much light as possible. "Give me one more hour of sleep, and then I'll make you breakfast."

"Okay," Dawn agreed, to the surprise of her youngest brother.

"'Morning Dawn," Ricky said as Dawn entered the living room. Richard Harper was the second oldest of the Harper quadruplets, and had always gone by the name Ricky. Ricky hadn't changed much as he had grown up; he still wore a sweater vest, collared shirt, and nice pants every day. His hair was still styled the same way, and he was a bit taller, but still the shortest of all his siblings. The only noticeable difference was that Ricky now wore glasses, which made him look intelligent. He _was _intelligent.

Rather than responding to her brother with "Good morning," Dawn said: "You should wear contacts today."

"I'll out them on after breakfast," Ricky answered as if Dawn had asked a question. "Is Nicky coming down?"

"He should be," Dawn said, and held up three fingers. "In three...two..._one_..."

On "one", Nicky appeared at the top of the stairs, still dressed in the clothes he had slept in and looking extremely disheveled. Ricky and Dawn watched as Nicky stomped halfway down the stairs, then stopped and said with a glare at the person in question: "Thanks a lot, _Dawn._ Now I _ can't _sleep."

Dawn smiled and tossed her dirty-blonde hair. "You're welcome."

* * *

"I hate you both," Nicky said, laying his head on the table.

"Don't hate us," said Ricky before taking a bit of eggs. "Hate the universe."

In the span of time it took Nicky to make his siblings scrambled eggs, Dawn and Ricky had each toasted and eaten two frozen waffles. As a result, neither of them had wanted the eggs Dawn had rudely forced Nicky to prepare. It was only when Nicky threatened the other two with a cast-iron skillet that they agreed to eat his cooking.

"I'm too tired to think about the universe," said Nicky, lifting his head up. "Or why I should hate it."

"To make a long story short enough for your sleep-deprived brain to understand," said Dawn, "the universe is telling you to quit your job."

"Well, the universe is telling _you _to shut up and eat your eggs before I hit you with a cast-iron skillet," Nicky threatened.

"Nicky, what did we tell you about threatening your siblings with a cast-iron skillet?" Anne Harper asked, entering the kitchen with her husband, Tom.

Nicky gave his mother a confused look. "I dunno, what _did _you tell me about threatening my siblings with a cast-iron skillet?"

"We told you not to do it," Anne said sternly, looking at Nicky in a way that implied this was obvious.

"Right."

"Where's the coffee?" Tom asked, holding up the empty coffee pot.

Dawn slapped a hand to her forehead. "I knew there was something else I forgot to tell Nicky to do!"

Anne tugged on her husband's arm. "Come on Tom, we can get coffee at the air- I mean, at the place we're going." She turned back to her three children. "I want all of you dressed and ready to go when we get back in an hour. That means Dawn, you can't spend forever on makeup and hog the bathroom, Nicky, you better start getting ready now, and Ricky, for Pete's sake, choose either glasses or the sweater vest, not both!"

Before any of the quads had time to protest or ask questions, Tom and Anne rushed out of the house.

Ricky turned to his brother and sister. "What's wrong with wearing both?"

"It makes you look like a nerd," Dawn said. "And not in a good way."

* * *

Despite Dawn's hogging the bathroom as she talked to her best friend Mae on FaceShack, Ricky's concerned questions about whether or not every body saw him as a nerd because of how he dressed, and Nicky's being half asleep through his entire morning routine, the three Harper quads were downstairs and ready with ten minutes to spare.

This most likely would not have happened had Dicky been there. Dicky (whose full name was Dominic) was the second youngest quad, but two years before, he had been accepted into a student exchange program in Australia. He had enjoyed it so much that when the Australian school year ended and his host family offered to let him stay over the summer holidays, Dicky gladly accepted, and ended up spending two full years down under.

These two full years proved very beneficial for the other three quads, as they were less often dragged into ridiculous plans. Dawn spent her time improving her singing and her skills in soccer, while Nicky took part in several different restaurant jobs before the previous summer, when he strangely settled for the night shift at a twenty-four hour diner.

Rather than focus on sports or ways to earn money, Ricky focused on his education and achieving top grades, or "acting like a typical nerd", as Nicky called it. Ricky also joined the Mathletes, or "committed social suicide" as Dawn called it. But whenever his siblings used either of these phrases to describe his life choices, Ricky would lean back in his chair and gesture to his section of the Ickys' bedroom wall, which was covered in the various award certificates he had received.

But every once in awhile, when the quads weren't busy cooking, singing, playing soccer, or committing social suicide, they wondered what Dicky was getting accomplished in Australia. This thought was always quickly followed by a thought of "probably not much", and the matter was left at that.

"What do you think Dicky is getting accomplished in Australia today?" Dawn asked on this particular morning, when the three quads were sitting in the living room and waiting for their parents to return.

"Probably not much," Ricky responded.

Nicky didn't say anything, as he had fallen back asleep.

Eventually, Tom and Anne returned home. While Tom walked up the stairs, attempting to hold onto two giant cardboard boxes, Anne stood in front of the doorway with the door halfway closed behind her.

"I'm glad to see you're all ready," Anne said as the quads have her questioning looks because they could tell she was hiding something. "I know this will take some readjustment, but it's immensely better than the alternative."

As Nicky, Ricky and Dawn continued to look confused, Anne opened the door and let a semi-familiar person walk in.

It was a tall teenage boy with his dark brown hair cut in the typical high school boy haircut, who appeared to be the same age as the three quads. This was the case, and the quads actually knew him very well, but when you haven't seen a person in a long time it is common to forget what they look like. Or, you may have an image of the person in your head, and when they show up looking nothing like that mental image you end up very confused.

And finally, when the person you haven't seen in a long time shows up looking nothing like your mental image of them and their voice sounds nothing like you remember it, you can be completely stumped as to who this person is and why they are acting like they already know you.

"Hey guys," said the teenage boy. His voice had a touch of an Australian accent.

Dawn, Ricky and Nicky stood still for a moment, staring at the boy until suddenly, all at once, they realized who it was and asked in unison:

"_Dicky_?"

**Yes, this began a bit randomly, but I had this idea and I wanted to write it, so here we are. I hope it was decent!**


End file.
